The present invention relates generally to an information vending apparatus and an information vending method and a program storage medium and, more particularly, to an information vending apparatus, an information vending method, and a program storage medium for selling information such as music data for example.
Now, referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a prior-art digital information vending system. In the Figure, a digital information vending apparatus 1, installed at the storefront (of such as a convenience store), receives digital information from a server unit 2 via a transmission path 3 and stored the received digital information in itself. When selling the digital information stored inside, the digital information vending apparatus 1 records the digital information onto a recording medium 4 which is loaded in the digital information vending apparatus 1 by a purchaser.
The digital information vending apparatus 1 comprises a management capability 11, a digital information accumulation capability 12, and a digital information vending capability 13. The management capability 11 has a digital information management capability 21 that controls the digital information accumulation capability 12 and the digital information vending capability 13.
The digital information accumulation capability 12 comprises a reception capability 22, a decryption capability 23, and a record holding capability 24. The reception capability 22 receives the encrypted digital information from the server unit 2 via the transmission path 3 and supplies the received digital information to the encryption capability 23.
The decryption capability 23 stores a cryptographic key in advance and decrypts the encrypted digital information supplied from the reception capability 22. The record holding capability 24 record the decrypted digital information supplied from the decryption capability 23 as arranged in digital information 6-1 through digital information 6-4.
The digital information vending capability 13 comprises an accounting capability 25, a reading capability 26, and a writing capability 27.
The accounting capability 25 collects money from the purchaser of any of the digital information 6-1 through 6-4 stored in the digital information accumulation capability 12. The accounting capability 25 further comprises a charge computation capability 31, a details print capability 32, and a charge collection capability 33.
The charge computation capability 31 computes the price of the digital information 6-1 through 6-4 sold. The details print capability 32 prints, on a receipt, such information about sold digital information 6-1 to 6-4 as its sale price for example.
The charge collection capability 33 collects the charge for the sold digital information 6-1 to 6-4 from the money thrown in by the purchaser.
The reading capability 26 reads the sold digital information 6-1 to 6-4 from the digital information accumulation capability 12 when the payment has been made by the purchaser and supplies the retrieved digital information 6-1 to 6-4 to the writing capability 27.
The writing capability 27 writes the sold digital information 6-1 to 6-4 supplied from the reading capability 26 onto the loaded recording medium 4.
In what follows, the digital information 6-1 through 6-4 are generically referred to as digital information 6 for simplify unless otherwise specified.
The server unit 2 selects, at a predetermined time (for example, twelve midnight every day) recorded digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) to be transmitted to the digital information vending apparatus 1 and sends the selected digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) to the digital information vending apparatus 1 via the transmission path 3.
The server unit 2 has a management capability 51, a digital information concentrated accumulation capability 52, and a digital information distribution server capability 53. The management capability 51 has a digital information management capability 71 to control the digital information concentrated accumulation capability 52 and the digital information distribution server capability 53.
The digital information concentrated accumulation capability 52 accumulates the digital information 5-1 through 5-(n+1) which are transmitted to the digital information vending apparatus 1.
The digital information distribution server capability 53 reads digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) from the digital information concentrated accumulation capability 52, encrypts the retrieved digital information, and sends it to the digital information vending apparatus 1 via the transmission path 3. The digital information distribution server capability 53 has a reading capability 72, an encryption capability 73, and a transmission capability 74.
The reading capability 72 reads the digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) from the digital information concentrated accumulation capability 52 and supplies the retrieved digital information to the encryption capability 73. The encryption capability 73 encrypts digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) supplied from the reading capability 72 by an encryption algorithm such as DES (Data Encryption Standard) and supplies the encrypted digital information to the transmission capability 74. The transmission capability 74 sends the encrypted digital information 5-1 to 5-(n+1) to the digital information vending apparatus 1 via the transmission path 3.
In what follows, the digital information 5-1 through 5-(n+1) is generically referred to as digital information 5 unless otherwise specified.
A problem in the above-mentioned prior-art technology is that the recording medium 4 has no capability of preventing such non-compliant uses of the digital information 6 as its unauthorized duplication and reproduction and the usage conditions of the digital information 6 are not recorded on the recording medium 4, making it impossible to prevent the non-compliant use from taking place.